the pen is mightier

So what lead me to a venture in blogging wasn’t only my want to share my life story and knowledge with everyone, but also a passion for writing. Fictional writing to be specific. I’ve been writing since I was very young and find such great joy in it. But in the past few years, I’ve fallen away from it. So I’ve been pinning random writing prompts for the past few months, tackling a few of them as the mood strikes me.

Well, that mood as struck me tonight… so I’m going to share this evenings story with you.

“It was less than a second, maybe half a second, but it changed everything.”

Has there ever been a moment in your life where things were going one way and then suddenly, for no discernible reason, they weren’t anymore? I’m not talking about an instance where something happened to change the course of things. Like you were racing your friend down the street and you tripped on a crack in the sidewalk. I’m talking about like one second you’re just walking along, minding your own business, and the next you’re unconscious on the ground and no one knows why.

It was less than a second, maybe half a second, but it changed everything.

The day was a bright and sunny one. By all accounts, it should have been a good day. The high was well into the mid seventies, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, I’d just landed a gig building a website for a new PR firm that had come into town and I was celebrating with a caramel frapp from my favorite coffee shop.

I remember stepping out the door of the shop, hesitating after I’d made it through the threshold to hold the door open for a mother and her son. They both smiled at me and gave a nod of thanks before ducking inside. I let the door swing shut behind them and turned to walk down the street to my apartment but I wasn’t able to get more than four steps away before it happened. BAM.

I didn’t know what happened of course. I still don’t know what happened. No one does.

“It’s a complete mystery,” the doctors told my parents. “Her brain is functioning just fine, she’s responsive in almost every manner imaginable. It’s just like she’s trapped in her own head, unable to speak or move. We have no reason for it.”

But I wasn’t trapped. I was sitting up in the hospital bed listening to the doctor tell my parents these things. Couldn’t they see me?

“Hey, I’m right here yanno,” I said a bit snidely. I’d been listening quietly the whole time and only now just spoke up. It was a bit rude to talk about someone like they weren’t there when they clearly were.

I expected someone to look at me… but no one did. My mother had her face buried in my father’s neck and he was holding her close, trying to tell her it was all going to be okay. The doctor looked forlornly at me before shaking his head and leaving the room.

“CAN YOU NOT HEAR ME?!” I all but shouted at him as he walked out of the room.

But despite my cry, the door closes behind him. I stare at it for a moment, my mouth agape in disbelief. Was this some kind of joke? Were they really just ignoring me?

Hearing my mother let out a strained gasp brought my attention from the door. “Mom, really, I’m fine,” I said as I pushed the covers back and swung my legs off the side of the bed to get up. But my legs didn’t move. Or… well… they did but they didn’t. I could see them, quite clearly, still laying on the bed but I could also see them, though more faintly, hanging off the side.

I looked to my right and there I was, still laying down with my eyes closed and my face expressionless.

What. In. The. Hell.

I thought back on my day. I could remember the sun was out, that I’d gotten a pretty big contract and that I’d gone to celebrate with coffee. And as I desperately tried to remember what happened after that, I saw flashes of what went down in my head, but from the outside. As if I was a spectator.

Walking down the street, minding my own business, I had just collapsed. At first, no one stopped. But after a few seconds, someone came up to me and asked if I was okay. I didn’t respond. They tried shaking me awake but it didn’t work. Finally they called out for help and that’s when people started rushing to my aid.

It was less than a second, maybe half a second, but it changed everything.

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And I honestly have no idea where I was going with that. I really just felt like writing… and that’s what came of it.